our hunch was right

We're having another...

What an awesome privilege to raise boys in a world that needs a few more good men! And... I'll still be able to sign our family letters "love Adriel & the boys" which I've grown quite fond of. Bonus.

We're so excited to think about the bond of brothers and how much fun they will have together. No doubt they will keep me busy (and in the kitchen!), but I am genuinely glad to be welcoming another little dude into the family and let his tiny heart invade mine own. Levi has made me fall in love with little boys in a way that I never thought possible. And of course Ryan is thrilled to have another member of the soccer team. Or basketball team. Or football team. Whatever. (Joke, people! They can join the ballet for all we care.)

Now it's onto the challenge of thinking of boy names, which we find much harder than girls names!

Baby is 19 weeks along and we look forward to my doctors appointment next week to hear all of the results of the scan. Can't believe this pregnancy is nearly half finished already! Yikes. It is flying by.

We love our baby boy Booker and thank God for his precious life.

Dear friends, that's all from me today. Just wanted to share our wonderful news! Do you have any advice for being a mom to boys?? And in celebration of one year of the Memos (and boys all around!) make sure to check out my pregnancy and baby-related giveaways below.

love, adriel & the boys xx

Yay! YOU get presents in honor of 

MY birthday! How fun is that??

Enter to win The Pregnancy Companion. 

Win it for yourself or to give as a gift to an expecting friend.

Just leave a comment here. Giveaway closes May 15, 2011.

Enter to win a Peekabooby nursing cover!

Leave a comment here. Giveaway ends May 20, 2011.

Are you an expecting mama? Link up with the 

Bloggin' Babes and Babies of 2011 here.

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

the hottest baby names of 2011

Ok, in actuality we’re talking about the hottest baby names of 2011 according to me. Yes, this is an opinion post – no research done here, folks! But aren’t you curious about what my faves are?

All of these are names I love that have not made our top five for either gender for one reason or another. Some of them Ryan has outright rejected, others one or both of us don’t like the nickname options, others we don’t like the actual meaning of, and others have different reasons for rejection all together. 

I won’t tell you all of our “no” reasoning for each name, because some of it is just personal or best kept to ourselves! But of course, I couldn’t resist making comments after a few of them. {JustCantHelpMyself.}

the hottest name of 2010: levi scott

Alright then, for what it's worth, here are some great suggestions (according to yours truly) that the Bookers won’t be using. So... {*wink, grin*} please help yourself:

Top 12 boys names (in no particular order):

• Lucas or Luca
• Jude
• Samuel (Love the nickname “Sam” but it doesn’t work with the Australian pronunciation of our last name without sounding like Sambuca - a type of liqueur. We don’t want to be known as the “lush parents”.)
• Max
• Noah
• Milo (In Australia that’s the well-known brand name of a hot chocolate-type drink. I’ve decided we will just have to get a dog and name him Milo instead, as I really am in love with that name!)
• Asher
• Dexter (I don’t want my kid being nicknamed Sexy Dex!)
• Jack or Jaxon
• Micah
• Dylan
• Silas

Top 12 girls names (in no particular):

• Elianna
• Alivia (I adore the nickname “Liv”, but Levi and Liv are just a little too similar.)
• Charlotte (With the nickname “Charlie” – ohmygoodness, so cute!)
• Lucy
• Mira (In Australia people would think her name is “mirror” as the two are pronounced exactly the same.)
• India
• Grace (Such a timeless classic!)
• Stella (Again, a little too alcohol-ish since this is the name of a popular Belgian beer.)
• Sydney (I just wouldn’t ever use that one unless we actually lived outside of Australia.)
• Isla
• Dyllan (Yes, I like it for both genders, but with a slight variation of the spelling.)
• Clara

For the record, we are still somewhat undecided on name options for baby number two. (We’re open for suggestions!) We are fairly certain we have a girl’s name nailed down, and less certain about a boy’s (although we have a few options left over from round one that we still really like and are seriously considering). But even when we do find out the gender and decide on a name… we will be keeping it under wraps until his/her birthday so that Ryan can have his “Lion King Moment” – sharing baby’s name with the world.

Oh, it’s exciting isn’t it?! What a huge deal it is to name our children… so very daunting, frustrating, difficult, fun, and exciting.

Dear friends, what are your favorite baby names at the moment? How did you choose your children’s names and did it stir up controversy or was it a simple and seamless process? Alternately, if you don’t want to give your gems away, what were your favorite baby names when you were a kid? (If I had babies when I was eight years old, I think my girls would have been named Jamie and Melody and my boys would have been Tyson and Mitchell. *smile* I was just crazy about those names. I still think they’re nice names… but they don’t even come close to making the top of my list anymore.)

loving the name game,

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

pookie-wookie bunny bear?

The other day I was thinking about the many names I have for Levi… I wanted to record some of them just for fun. And yet now that I’m sitting down to do it I know there are so many that I’m forgetting. {Poor kid gets called a thousand names... and every once-and-a-while, 'Levi'.}

I thought it would be fun to start my list, and then as I remember more I will add them in comments… Would you add your nicknames for your kiddos in a comment too? Let’s see how long we can make our list of pet names.

1. Monkey
2. Cuddle bug
3. Munckin
4. Turtle dove
5. Cuddle muffin
6. Bug-a-lugs
7. Bunny
8. Turtle baby
9. Poopy pants
10. Sweet pea
11. Pooper-do
12. Honey-do
13. Bubby
14. Big fella
15. Kiddo
16. Buddy
17. Chubalicious
18. Baby-kins
19. Baby-boo
20. Little man
21. Marshmello bum {that one is from my hubs}
22. Sweetness
23. Lovey
24. Babe
25. Bugga-boo
26. Smelly pants
27. Scrunchie face
28. Mr. giggles
29. Little boy blue
30. Brown eyes
31. Lamby-kins
32. Sugar pie
33. Beetle bum
34. Poo bug
35. Poopy woopy
36. Little champ
37. Poo bum
38. Sweety
39. Big boy
40. Lil rippa’
41. Grumble butt
42. Cranky pants
43. Cherub
44. Bunny bear
45. Angle face
46. Baby-loo
47. Precious
48. Funny face
49. Angel boy
50. Darling
51. Pumpkin
52. Sweetheart
53. Silly billy
54. Cheeky monkey
55. Koala-boo
56. Presh-pot

Dear mommy-friends, what do you call your little ones? (And let's number them so we can see how long this goes!)

And lastly, for those of you on MBC: I created a group called Oh Baby! {pregnancy & baby blogs}. If that group is a fit for you, come register and meet other moms at a similar stage in mommyhood!

Love us? Vote here!

what's in a name?

One night soon after my husband and I were first engaged we were having a conversation about baby names. Immediately we agreed on a girl name… which will remain a secret for now. *grin*

Boy names, however, were another story! Pretty much every name I liked, Ryan hated… and every name Ryan liked, I hated. Thankfully we weren’t anywhere near having a baby at that point.

A couple years later when I got pregnant (yay!) we were both somewhat convinced it would be a girl. Probably our main reasons for this were that we had settled on a girl’s name from very early on and we had often talked about little “so and so” by name even before conception.

But of course, at that 20 week ultrasound we were directed on the screen to… a penis. (Hooray for little boys!)

As thrilled as we were, this did mean a predicament for us… coming up with a name.

We went round and round with names. Still, many of the names I liked, Ryan didn’t and visa-versa. Finally a few names made their way to the top of the list: Oliver (Ollie), Levi, Ezekiel, Miles… and we just kind of got stuck! For a long time we just didn’t speak much about the name and continued to “feel” it out, hoping that one would emerge as the winner over time.

We considered the nicknames (especially important in Australia where everything is shortened). Although I love the name Ezekiel, I don’t really like the nickname “Zeke”… because I immediately think Zeke the geek, Zeke the freak… Doesn’t work for me (though Ryan loves it).

We considered what the initials would spell. We considered how the name would be pronounced in each of our home country’s accents. We considered the “timeless” verses “trendy” factor. And finally we considered the meanings.

Through all of our deliberations the name Levi rose to the top… the others slowly faded in appeal and this one “stuck”.

We loved the name Levi because it was simple, but not all that common (we only knew/heard of one other Levi at the time). We also thought it sounded cute for a little boy, and strong for a teenager and man. It fit well with our last name, and most importantly we loved the meaning.

As parents we feel that the meaning behind the names of our kids are very important. (We love the meaning of our own names: Ryan means 'little king' and Adriel means 'strength of God' or 'follower of God'.) We believe that what we name them will mark them forever if we are intentional about it. Levi means “joined” which isn’t all that exciting… until you look at the context and the history of Levi. Levi was the head of one of the 12 tribes of Israel in the Bible. The “job” of that tribe was to be priests – to represent God to people and people to God. Levi means to connect (join) people to God. We love that meaning! (And on a side note I also loved that Levi was never allowed to go to war… I’m not gonna lie, I [selfishly?] hope my son will always be exempt from war too.)

So, Levi it was... Levi Scott (named for my dad) Booker. It has a good ring to it, doesn't it? *grin*

Now that he’s with us on the outside, we can’t imagine calling him anything else. He’s most definitely not an Ollie, not a Miles, not an Ezekiel… although those are names we still really like.

Our little Levi is... just Levi and we knew that his name suited him perfectly from the moment we saw him. (That photo of him above is when he's about three hours old - soooo sweet!)

Every parent has different (important and valid!) reasons for choosing the names that they do. How did you decide on your little one’s names dear mommy friends?

If you enjoy The Mommyhood Memos, please vote for me: